lea

¹

Also ley

[lee, ley]

noun

1. a tract of open ground, especially grassland; meadow.

2. land used for a few years for pasture or for growing hay, then plowed over and replaced by another crop.

3. a crop of hay on tillable land.

adjective

1. untilled; fallow.

lea

²

[lee]

noun

1. a measure of yarn of varying quantity, for wool usually 80 yards (73 meters), cotton and silk 120 yards (110 meters), linen 300 yards (274 meters).

2. Textiles.

   1. a unit length used to ascertain the linear density of yarns.

   2. a count or number representing units of linear measure per pound in linen or cotton yarn.

      a 20-lea yarn.

Lea

³

[lee, lee-uh]

noun

1. Homer, 1876–1912, U.S. soldier and author: adviser 1911–12 to Sun Yat-sen in China.

2. a female given name, form of Leah or Lee.

lea.

⁴

abbreviation

1. league.

2. leather.

lea

¹

/ liː /

noun

1. poetic,  a meadow or field

2. land that has been sown with grass seed

lea

²

/ liː /

noun

1. a unit for measuring lengths of yarn, usually taken as 80 yards for wool, 120 yards for cotton and silk, and 300 yards for linen

2. a measure of yarn expressed as the length per unit weight, usually the number of leas per pound

LEA

³

abbreviation

1. Local Education Authority

Word History and Origins

Origin of lea¹

before 900; Middle English lege, lei, Old English lēah; cognate with Old High German lōh, dialectal Dutch loo (as in Waterloo ), Latin lūcus

Origin of lea²

1350–1400; perhaps back formation from Middle English lese, variant of leash

Word History and Origins

Origin of lea¹

Old English lēah; related to German dialect loh thicket

Origin of lea²

C14: of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

Alongside him has been Michael Ellam, who returned to government in January to lea, at an officials-level, the negotiations with the EU.

Read more on BBC

Below us, the mountains rested under a knitted duvet of forest green, its smoothness only occasionally disturbed by the dropped stitch of a house or a small pea-green lea.

Read more on Washington Post

It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, “onding on snaw,” canopied all; thence flakes fell at intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting.

Read more on Literature

And flow down to the vales and leas;

Read more on Washington Times

"Read all about it. Ten leas a pop for the Spice Isles Sentinel."

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• farmland 
• garden 
• grassland 
• green 
• ground 
• meadow 
• pasture 
• range 
• terrain 
• territory